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UK leadership race: Who could replace Liz Truss as prime minister?
Liz Truss has announced she will resign, which means there will now be another leadership election to decide who becomes the next Conservative leader and prime minister.
The contest to replace her is expected to be completed by the end of next week.
Would-be candidates need at least 100 nominations from fellow Tory MPs to get on the ballot, meaning no more than three of them will be able to stand because there are 357 Tory MPs.
In practice, there are likely to be two candidates; or even one, who would become leader without a vote by party members.
No-one has yet confirmed that they will stand, but here are some of the potential candidates.
Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak in July during his campaign for the Tory leadership. Photo: AFP / Justin Tallis
Rishi Sunak ran to replace Boris Johnson as leader earlier this summer and made it to the final two along with Truss, having won the most support from Conservative MPs.
During the campaign he warned that his rival’s tax plans would damage the economy, but his message failed to appeal to party members and he lost by 21,000 votes.
Sunak only became an MP in 2015, for the North Yorkshire constituency of Richmond. Few outside Westminster had heard of him, but he was chancellor of the exchequer by February 2020.
He quickly had to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, spending huge amounts of money trying to keep the economy afloat during lockdown.
This didn’t come easily to a man who saw himself as a low tax and spend Conservative on the Thatcherite wing of the party but it did boost his popularity.
However, his reputation was dented following a controversy over his wife’s tax affairs, and not long after that he received a fine for breaching lockdown rules.
Conservative MP Angela Richardson has already pledged her support for Sunak saying: “Having spent the summer supporting Rishi Sunak’s leadership bid, my views on his suitability have not changed. If anything, the past six weeks have brought them even more sharply into focus.”
Penny Mordaunt
Penny Mordaunt stood in the last contest but failed to make the final two. Photo: AFP / Justin Tallis
Penny Mordaunt had a taste of being prime minister earlier this week when she stood in for Liz Truss during an urgent question in Parliament.
She received good reviews for her confident performance at the despatch box and may fancy another tilt at the leadership.
She stood in the last contest, and secured strong support from her fellow MPs but just missed out on making it the final two.
After backing Truss, she was appointed leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Privy Council – which meant she presided over the Accession Council for the new king.
In 2019, Mordaunt made history by becoming the UK’s first female defence secretary – a natural fit for a naval reservist who had already served as armed forces minister under David Cameron.
Mordaunt has so far received support from MPs John Lamont, Maria Miller, Bob Seely and Damian Collins.
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson was forced to announce his resignation in July, after a mass revolt by ministers and MPs. Photo: AFP / Daniel Leal
With just a week to choose a new leader, many of the contenders are likely to be familiar faces, and none more so than the man who was prime minister just weeks ago.
Boris Johnson was forced to announce his resignation in July, after a mass revolt by ministers and MPs. It followed months of rows over Downing Street lockdown parties and other controversies.
The MP for Uxbridge faces an investigation by the Privileges Committee into whether he obstructed the Commons by telling MPs that lockdown rules had been followed at No 10. He and others were subsequently fined for Covid breaches.
However, he still has allies both in Parliament and the party membership in general. Long-term supporter Nadine Dorries has argued he should return, as he received a mandate from the British public in the 2019 election.
Other MPs who have already come out in favour of Johnson returning to No 10 include: Paul Bristow, Brendan Clarke-Smith, Andrea Jenkyns and Michael Fabricant.
Ben Wallace
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace Photo: AFP
While many leading Tories divide opinion within the party, the defence secretary is widely seen by fellow MPs as a safe pair of hands.
Wallace has drawn increasing attention since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as the UK made an early decision to support Kyiv with weapons and training.
Despite his opposition to Brexit, Wallace has been a key supporter of Boris Johnson and was rewarded with a cabinet post in 2019.
Before becoming a politician, he served as a soldier in Germany, Cyprus, Belize and Northern Ireland, where he thwarted an IRA effort to carry out a bomb attack against British soldiers.
After Johnson stood down, there had been suggestions Wallace could run – particularly as he was topping polls run by the Conservative Home website – however he opted to support Truss instead, describing her as “authentic”.
Kemi Badenoch
Kemi Badenoch Photo: AFP / Isabel Infantes
Kemi Badenoch was the surprise breakthrough candidate of the most recent leadership race – and although she didn’t win, the contest helped significantly boost her profile.
Although a relatively junior minister, she won the support of senior Conservative Michael Gove, and drew attention for her attacks on so-called “woke” culture.
Born in Wimbledon, south London, she grew up in the US and Nigeria, where her psychology professor mother had lecturing jobs.
Before arriving in Parliament – where she represents Saffron Walden – she worked for private bank Coutts and The Spectator magazine.
Her most senior role in government to date has been leading the international trade department.
Suella Braverman
Suella Braverman Photo: AFP / Adrian Dennis
The former home secretary’s resignation piled the pressure on Liz Truss, and the prime minister stood down less than 24 hours later. Although Braverman’s departure was ostensibly about a data breach, her angry resignation letter hinted at a disagreement over immigration.
Braverman has sought to appeal to her party’s right wing on social issues, saying it is her “dream” to begin transporting migrants to Rwanda, as well as criticising the “tofu-eating wokerati”.
The former barrister is a Brexit supporter who was attorney general in Boris Johnson’s government. She stood in the last leadership contest following his resignation but was voted out in the second round.
Her parents emigrated to the UK in the 1960s from Kenya and Mauritius, and both spent time in local politics – with her mother being a councillor for 16 years.
Braverman was the first cabinet minister to take maternity leave – after the law was changed so that cabinet ministers could receive paid maternity leave, having previously been expected to resign their posts.
– BBC
Source : RNZ
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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